To act as legal custodian of all civil instruments filed with the Berks County Court of Common Pleas.

About the Office

The Prothonotary is the Chief Clerk and Recordkeeper for all filings related to Civil Cases. The Office is located in the County Courthouse and responsible for the filing, recording and processing of all Civil actions, Equity actions, Judgments, Federal and Local Tax Liens, City Liens, Family Court matters, Arbitrations, License Suspension Appeals, Appeals to Higher Court, Uniform Commercial Code filings, and Applications for Passports.

Also, we file and record all Judgments, Orders, Decrees of Court and mail notice of such entries to parties and/or counsel in each case. We issue Writs and process many other legal documents. We review pleadings filed for compliance with the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure and Berks County Rules of Court. Filing fees are collected for services rendered and turned over to the County and State. This revenue covers all daily operating expenses of the office, virtually making it self-supporting. These revenues do not support the indirect costs such as electricity, heat, air conditioning, etc. These are fixed expenses the County would incur regardless of what office occupies our space in the county-owned building. Additionally, these expenses are not directly under the control of the Prothonotary.

Prothonotary Announcements

PASSPORT INFORMATION

Applications for passports will be accepted BY APPOINTMENT ONLY Monday through Friday.

EFFECTIVE JANUARY 6, 2018 -- NEW PUBLIC ACCESS POLICY OF THE UNIFIED JUDIDIAL SYSTEM OF PENNSYLVANIA. NEW public access policy of the Unified Judicial System (UJS) of Pennsylvania for case records filed in and maintained by the appellate and trial courts becomes effective JANUARY 6, 2018. The policy and related documents can be viewed on the UJS website at: http://www.pacourts.us/public-records/public-records-policies